Mark Hamill on Skywalker disagreements, fear of starring in a new Star Wars film

AUSTIN, Texas—Following the world premiere of The Director and The Jedi, a comprehensive two-hour documentary about the making of the latest Star Wars film, South By Southwest Film Festival attendees got a Last Jedi double-whammy. After the curtain raised at the Paramount Theater, director Rian Johnson and actor Mark Hamill took the stage for an impromptu Q&A.

Hamill unsurprisingly opted for jokes and openness in his answers, and in particular, he offered his most robust comments yet about that spicy bit of news ahead of Episode VIII's launch: that he didn't much care for how the character of Luke Skywalker had been written.

“A house I didn’t recognize”

Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson and Mark Hamill (center) take audience Q&As after a screening of the documentary The Director and The Jedi. (Also pictured, documentarian Anthony Wonkie and producer Ram Bergman.) Nathan Mattise

Hamill stutter-dances his way onto the SXSW stage. Sam Machkovech

Other members of the Last Jedi and its documentary crew sit with Johnson (second from left) and Hamill (middle) for a SXSW Q&A. Sam Machkovech

The topic bubbled up with a question about Star Wars' mythical and heroic scope as a long-running series, and Hamill explained how he prepared for the role: "When you get down to it, it's not Mark Hamill in a blockbuster film. It's Luke. I had to do a wild reimagining of the character. Like, hey, what happened between the last one and this one, where the most hopeful man in the galaxy becomes a cranky old suicidal man telling people to get off his lawn?

"Here I am going home again," he later added, "but it was a house I didn’t recognize at all."

Another fan pressed Hamill about this and about the brief mentions of disagreements between Hamill and Johnson during the film's production, which he opened up about widely.

"It's not distaste at all," Hamill said, partially quoting the question. "It just wasn't a Luke I understood." He described "backstories" that he had to invent for himself, including how Luke, in mentoring Kylo Ren, "picked the new Hitler to be the next hope" and "how I justified cutting off my telepathic communication with my sister." He even had a conversation with Johnson about the fact that Episode VII ended with Luke wearing Jedi robes. "What do we say about that? To make sure there was a flow."

"I’m in black. I have a glove. I see a trend here."

"In the context of how this has all been framed, you have to snap your head back and remember that with every single movie, with characters, it's always a dialogue between the director and actors," Johnson added. "That's a healthy thing. You always butt heads with actors."

The same fan asked a follow-up question: how, Mr. Hamill, would you have written the plot if you could have? (Johnson immediately interjected and drew a huge laugh from the audience: "I wanna hear this. What would you do, motherfucker?")

Hamill admitted that he had "lots of really terrible ideas" for Episode VIII, at which point he shifted the question with an interesting tidbit: he had similar beef with George Lucas and Return of the Jedi's plot before that began filming. "I read [the script for] Jedi and thought, 'Wait a sec! I thought I was heading toward the struggle of heading to the Dark Side. I'm in black. I have a glove. I see a trend here.'"

After offering a cooking analogy about actors and directors, Hamill expressed a rare bit of regret, which he explained by way of his own Star Wars fandom.

"I'm like a lot of you. I feel an investment in it, a certain sense of ownership, which is a joke, because I don’t own it, now Disney does. But you care! That's what happens with these films. I'm sorry I lowered my guard and expressed my misgivings about it. That belongs in the [filmmaking] process. That doesn't belong to the public. I feel bad because I made that statement before I saw the finished film."

He went on to compliment the film—"probably the most complex Star Wars film since maybe Empire"—and even acknowledged how Johnson found little ways to get him on board with the acting role while the film was in production. He referenced a scene in which Luke threatens to burn down the Jedi library, then acts startled and sad when Yoda calls his bluff to do it instead. "Not only is [Luke] a broken man, he's certifiably insane? I can play that."

“If Larry and Moe come back, Curly’s gotta sign”

Like in other interviews, Hamill again reflected on the fact that all three original-trilogy actors came back to the series. "Within seconds [of our first meeting], Carrie [Fisher] slapped the table and said, 'I'm in.' Later, I said, 'Carrie, pokerface!'" He said that he found out about Harrison Ford returning to the series via the press, at which point he said to himself, "Oh my god, I've been drafted. If Larry and Moe come back, Curly's gotta sign. Or I'll be the most hated man in nerd-dom."

When talking about the pressure of starring in a new Star Wars film, Hamill admitted he insulated himself by thinking about Johnson as a smaller-fry filmmaker. "It was almost too high-profile for comfort. I said to Rian, 'I'm just… I'm terrified.' You know what he said? 'I am, too.' That's when I bonded with him deeply. I said, 'I have to pretend that this is a small, arthouse film that critics will rave about and the public will roundly reject. If I thought intellectually, like, 'camera this far from your face, it's forever, I can't go back and change it,' I'd be in a fetal position in the corner."

Hamill also admitted that he physically trained for 12 months, twice a week, before even reading the script of Episode VII, just to be prepared for a possible intense role in that 2015 film. He later learned that JJ Abrams' vision for Episode VIII included a description of "floating boulders to show off my Force powers," which didn't match Johnson's vision of how Luke would be portrayed. (This Abrams suggestion made him hopeful in part, however, that he'd have a simpler time in terms of exertion while filming Last Jedi: "I'll have the Force oozing out of my every orifice in VIII. I'll be knocking down AT-ATs like dominoes, and I won't have to train very hard.")

For more on Hamill and Johnson's insights on the process of making The Last Jedi, and on other revelations from that film's gestation and production process, stay tuned for our review of The Director And The Jedi (subject to embargo). The film does not currently have an announced release date.

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The questionnaire, completed by then-18-year-old Jobs in 1973, was snapped up by an anonymous London internet entrepreneur.
The man that would go on to revolutionise the tech industry with his co-founding of Apple signed the application "Steven jobs" [sic] and said his special abilities included "electronics, tech or design engineer".
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Steve Jobs' application sold for $174,757
Under interests, he wrote: "digital – from Bay near Hewitt-Packard" [sic]. Jobs scrawled "yes" next to computer and calculator skills, adding "design tech".
According to the form, he had a driver's license but and stated his access to transportation as "possible, but not probable".
Jobs gave his address on the application as Reed College, where he had begun studying English literature in 1972 but dropped out to preserve his parents' meagre amount of money.
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Later, in 1974, Jobs secured a job as a technician at Atari, heavily relying on the help of Steve Wozniak who would become the other Apple co-founder.
Other Steve Jobs highlights from the Pop Culture sale by PR Auction, which began on 8 March and concluded yesterday, include a signed Apple Mac OS X technical manual which sold for $41,806, and a signed 2008 newspaper clipping which went for $26,950.
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New version!
New characters!
New content and packaging!
AUSTIN, Texas—Sega hosted a South By Southwest 2018 panel about all things Sonic the Hedgehog, and the panel began with good news for anyone wanting a physical version of last year's tremendous 2D throwback, Sonic Mania. Their wishes will be granted in the form of Sonic Mania Plus, a physical release for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in "summer 2018" for $29.99.
Shortly after that announcement, Sega also offered a surprise "one more thing" about an apparent new Sonic racing game.
The panel noted that Mania's positive reception was tempered by one consistent complaint: that fans wanted a disc or cartridge version. So Sega moved forward with a boxed version of the game, and while its boxed version has its own physical perks (32-page art book, "holographic" cover, reversible Genesis-styled cover), the more interesting stuff comes in the form of new gameplay features. The most obvious of those are two classic-series creatures, Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel, being added as playable heroes. (These characters originated in the series' first Japan-exclusive arcade game, 1993's SegaSonic the Hedgehog.) Sega didn't confirm how differently those characters will control or whether existing levels will be opened up or changed for any unique mechanics.
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Listing image by Sega
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Enlarge/ Tehran, the capital city of Iran.A.Davey via Creative Commons
Yesterday, users in Iran lost access to Apple's App Store. When users attempted to connect or download apps, they received a message saying that the App Store was "unavailable in the country or region" in which they resided. The cessation of services began around noon GMT yesterday, and services resumed around 5:00am GMT this morning, according to social media posts and sources who spoke with Bleeping Computer. A virtual private network (VPN) could still reach the App Store normally.
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We are unable to include your app, [App Name], on the App Store. Under the U.S. sanctions regulations, the App Store cannot host, distribute, or do business with apps or developers connected to certain U.S. embargoed countries. This area of law is complex and constantly changing. If the existing restrictions shift, we encourage you to resubmit your app for inclusion on the App Store.
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EnlargeMarvel Studios
Marvel Studios is on quite the roll. Black Panther has already grossed over a billion dollars and doesn't look like it's done making money, and the studio's accountants must be rubbing their hands with glee as thoughts turn to the next tentpole release, Avengers: Infinity War. That movie opens on April 27, and on Friday, Marvel dropped a new trailer on us:
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Since many readers might not be able to watch the trailer at work, I've pulled some images into the following gallery. You'll need to provide your own stirring Avengers theme music by humming along, and it goes without saying that you shouldn't look at it if you're at all sensitive to spoilers. Really, I mean it; if you look at those pictures, you've got nothing to complain about other than your own lack of self-control!
The trailer opens with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and War Machine (Don Cheadle) standing on what looks to be the helicopter pad at Stark Tower. [Start humming theme now.] Marvel Studios
Uh-oh! Something big and round and definitely evil-looking has materialized above Manhattan. You can see Ars' parent company offices in the foreground. Right about now, I'm glad I work remotely from Washington, DC; John Timmer, Jeff Dunn, and Peter Bright might be in trouble, as they aren't too far away. Marvel Studios
This is Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). You probably knew that already since the entire world has seen his movie, more than once judging by the box office take. And why not? It was a damn good film. PS: His suit is made from vibranium. Marvel Studios
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Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) might have a plan? It involves this suit. Will it work? We won't know until April 27th!! [Keep humming theme tune] Marvel Studios
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